The Giants trade for Garko: start printing those playoff tickets!

The Giants acquired first baseman Ryan Garko from the Indians on Monday, filling a big need in the infield and adding a key right-handed bat . . . The Giants, who fell out of the wild-card lead with a 3-7 road trip, gave up Class-A left-hander Scott Barnes in the deal.

Garko is no great shakes as far as first basemen go — his .285/.362/.464 line has a torrid hot streak in July built into it that one can’t expect he’ll keep up and his defense is non-stellar — but given how poor the shakes have been at first for San Francisco this year, he’s something of an improvement. Barnes is will be 22 in September and so far is tearing it up in A-ball. Nice pickup for the Indians.

The logical move for Cleveland now would be to call up Matt LaPorta, who has lived in Columbus almost as long as I have, and is almost as tired of it as I am too. Unfortunately the Indians aren’t logical, so they called up Andy Marte instead. Maybe the 125th time will be the charm for him. Matt: call me! Seeing as you’re going to be here forever, I can hook you up with a good Columbus realtor!

Comments

I also would have preferred to see LaPorta called up, but the Marte decision seems pretty defensible. He’s still only 25, and a .950 OPS in the minors is nothing to sneeze at. I endured enough of his major league at-bats over the past three years that I’m also skeptical about his performance, but the Indians will have to find out at some point if it is real or not. He’s out of options and projected to be a minor league free agent at the end of the year if left off the 40-man roster, and I’d rather he start his final audition now than next April. I just know that the Indians can’t afford to pass up on the next Carlos Pena without paying due diligence.

That said, keeping LaPorta in Columbus still seems silly. Francisco has proven himself to be nothing better than a good fourth outfielder. Put LaPorta in left, enduring the defense for the time being, and maybe rotate him in at first and DH. His .950 OPS at Columbus is also nothing to sneeze at, and trumps whatever he did in 40 sporadic major league at-bats.

I won’t argue about the Indians logic as a whole, but Marte is currently sporting a .963 OPS in AAA and if he doesn’t stick with the parent club, he is a minor league free agent at the end of the year.

Anyway, there will be plenty of room for LaPorta after a few more deadline deals.

The Indians, for some reason known to only them, have decided that while Laporta is good in LF, he profiles as a 1b, where he needs reps before going to the majors. So he’s fine as a LF, and they have a need there, but they want him to be a 1b right now, and not in the offseason. Umm, OK, Shapiro.

Oh, and he’d probably be in the majors if not for the Indians NINE MAN BULLPEN.